An Hour in the Dark
by Xeno Cazear
Summary: What if the world was never changed? What if Tartarus and the TV world had been able run freely? This is THAT story.
1. Chapter 1

Worlds have collided, and lives changed. The Dark Hour and Tartarus are now able to be experienced by everyone, instead of midnight, they trigger at the crack of noon, and the fog from the TV world now heralds their appearance. Shadows frequently attack, and kill normal people, with several special taskforces of persona users being created in response to this threat. The outskirts of the few cities that aren't ruins, are defended by these task forces, and even the cities that are protected have vast areas of ruin that attract many scavengers to try and salvage any goods they can, for what little money they can get.

With the existence of Shadows being public knowledge, many groups soon started to crop up, stating that the Shadows were not something to be feared, but welcomed and even worshipped. These groups, which contain very few persona users, fight against the people they see as 'heathens' to the bloody end, often falling to the taskforces before they can even accomplish anything noticeable.

"Come on Henya, its almost noon, we gotta get moving or the shadows are going to be biting at our heels." a voice said.

"Yeah, I know. I just wish we got a better haul…" Henya said in a low mumble, disappointment in his voice. "I mean, a few scraps of metal and some canned food isn't gonna cut it for much longer, we need more than this."

"Yeah, but it's not worth our lives, now is it?" the voice said in a condescending tone.

"Stop treating me like a kid Seiji, I'm not your defenseless little brother anymore."

Seiji laughed, and walked out of the building with a small bag full of metal scraps. "Come on, let's get goin'. I think I can see the fog in the distance."

"Okay." Henya yelled, finishing his gathering.

The two of them started off towards the center of the city, making sure to keep ahead of the fog, as to not get caught unawares by shadows.

"Hey, Henya, look what I found." Seiji said with a grin, pulling a small gold necklace out of his pocket.

"Whoa!" Henya said in a yell. "Is that real gold!? That'll keep us afloat for a while!"

Seiji just laughed and put it back in his pocket, as the fog rolled in harder and quicker.

"The fog is catching up…Stay close to me Henya." he said, dead serious.

Henya just nodded and moved closer to his brother, cautiously looking around for any sign of Shadows coming near.

They walked for a while, only hearing occasional sounds and seeing vague shapes behind them. Nothing seemed to attack them, or nothing wanted to. As they reached the mountainous walls of the fortified city, they could hear more and more sounds behind them, speeding up, and sounding more and more violent. As the sounds got closer and closer, Henya and Seiji started to run as fast as they could towards the gates of the city.

"Come on Seiji, we're almost there!" Henya yelled back at his brother.

"I know! I'm right behind you, keep goi-" he got cut off as he tripped, the necklace falling out of his pocket. "DAMN IT!"

"Seiji!" Henya started to run towards him. "LOOK OUT!"

Shadows started to swarm Seiji, using several fire and lightning spells.

"Henya! Run!" Seiji said through the pain, crying out in agony.

"But…" Henya stopped running towards his brother.

"GO!"

Tears streamed from Henya's eyes as he ran away from the shadows and his brother, reaching, and trying to enter the gates, as a taskforce jumped down from the gates, quickly eliminating the shadows. But they were too late; Seiji had withstood too many wounds.

Seeing the threat was gone, Henya quickly ran towards his brother's body, crying and trying to shake his brother awake.

"Seiji….please…wake up….I need you…" he put his head onto his brothers chest and kept crying as a taskforce members hand was placed on his shoulder

"Come on…..There is nothing you can do for him. Get back in the city before you join him."

Henya nodded, and wiped tears from his eyes, walking back to the gates with his head down.

"Hey, don't you want this?" The taskforce member held up the necklace, and tossed it towards Henya.

"Yeah…I guess." Henya mumbled, catching it and placing it in his pocket.

He entered the city, and was quickly rushed to a taskforce relief and command center.

"Wait here." a secretary said, pointing him to a chair.

He sat down and just looked at the necklace, tears falling on it.

A boy about Henya's age looked over at him. "So, how'd you get your persona?"

"W…what?" Henya said, looking up.

"I said how did you get you're persona? Did you face your true self, or did you resort to using an Evoker?"

"I..I don't know what you're talking about…I'm here for grief counselling...apparently…" Henya said, wiping away his tears.

"Oh….I'm sorry…" the boy put his head down, remaining quiet for the rest of the time.

Henya sat looking at the necklace for the remainder of the time, occasionally letting out a few tears. All he could think about was his brother's face, and how little he could do. These memories, even though they just happened, were already haunting him. People walking in and out the center tried to talk to him, but he rarely responded, and even if he did, he would become quiet shortly after.

Eventually a specialist came out and guided Henya to a small room with only two chairs, a table, and a camera, and sat him down.

The man pulled out an audio recorder and spoke into it. "Patient number 1, Henya Joa, age 18, 5" 9', only known family Seiji Joa, hair color black, eye color deep red."

He put the recorder on the table.

"So, why don't you tell me why you are here?" the man asked in a calming tone.

Henya said nothing.

"Why don't I tell you my name? I'm Dr. Emile."

He just kept looking at the necklace.

"If you want me to help you, you need to cooperate…"

Henya looked up. "I don't want anyone's help…I just want to go home…"

Emile sighed. "If that's what you want, I can't really stop you, can I?" he pulled out a card. "If by chance you want to talk, just call anytime…Okay?"

"….Fine…" Henya took the card and stood up. "Does this mean I can go home now?"

Emile stood up. "If that is what you wish."

Henya walked out of the room, and towards his house, not noticing the few taskforce members keeping an eye on him, and tracking him.

He opened his door, and immediately burst into tears and collapsed on his bed, crying himself to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Henya woke up in a cold sweat; he looked around in a frenzy, then hung his head down. His memories didn't even relent for a moment, he could hear screams and yelling in his head, he could feel the cold body of his brother in his hands, and he could feel the tears running down his face again.

All he could do now was live his life. That's what his brother would want, right? He couldn't tell anymore, life and death, they seemed meaningless to him now.

As he stood up, his head started to ring, and the same three words echoed over and over in his mind.

"Thou art I. Thou art I."

"Thou art I. Thou art I."

The words became jumbled and warped, eventually fading away into nothing. This was quickly shrugged off as exhaustion and Henya quickly went on his way, heading out into the city for his normal errands and those of his brother.

He was seemingly on auto-pilot, moving without thinking of the errands, where to go, what to do, what to buy, he just did it without a thought. All that was on his mind was the day before, and the hand on his shoulder. The face of the taskforce member seemed caring yet stern. That's the kind of person he wanted to be, caring for others yet strong enough to protect them.

He had made up his mind; he was going to enlist in the taskforce.

Then it dawned on him. He didn't have a persona, there was nothing special about him, and he was just a normal person with a normal life.

His thoughts were interrupted by the voice again.

"Thou art I. Thou art I."

Again these words started to fade away into nothingness, but this caught his attention for once. What was it about the voice? Something seemed…familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

He put it into the back of his mind, and quickly moved on with his day, leaving the city to go scavenge again.

"That's where he was…." he looked at a scorched patch of land, and started to tear up.

"I can't dwell on the past...I don't think that's what he would have wanted", he said to himself, unsure of his words.

He continued on his way into the closest patch of ruins, digging through rubble and debris, finding occasional bits of scrap, and a few cans of food.

"Damn it…I think I might need to head out further…" he mumbled to himself, nervous at the prospect of going alone.

"Seiji…." a voice murmured from behind him.

"Who's there?!" Henya was immediately alert, standing up and scanning the ruins of the room he was in. The voice sounded so familiar to him, he couldn't quite place it, and no matter how hard he looked around, no one could be seen.

"Maybe I just imagined it…" he went back to scavenging, staying on edge and alert. Hearing the name of his brother brought back a flood of memories that brought a mass of tears to his face.

As he wiped away his tears, and tried to regain himself, a glimmer of silver caught his eye.

"Is this…." eyes wide, he picked up what appeared to be a damaged evoker.

He deposited all he could find in his old tattered school bag, and headed farther into the ruins, carefully making sure he would have enough time to outrun the fog and any Shadows that would make him their next kill.

Reaching a clearing in the ruins, he saw what appeared to be tattered taskforce uniform, covered in dried blood with no body to be found.

"That's not reassuring…" he turned away and went into some of the more intact buildings, moving around rubble, breaking open cabinets, trying to find anything of worth.

Again he heard a familiar voice near him.

"Boohoo, poor me."

Henya shot up to his feet and looked around furiously.

"Who in the hell is there?! Show yourself!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, but no response came.

He looked around some more, before grabbing a sizeable piece of metal, just in case he had to protect himself.

"M-maybe I should head back…J-just to be safe", voice and hands trembling, nerves shot, he started his way back.

The areas around him seemed to warp, and instead of him going back to the town, he went further in.

A short siren called from the town. The dark hour was upon him, the fog almost instantly upon him, and shapes rushed past.

"No, no, no, no", panic started to set in, and so did desperation.

In his panic, he went further in, and the shapes he could see got bigger and more menacing, yet still ignored him.

"Is it the evoker I have with me?" he thought to himself, that's the only thing that was different, right?

"Poor me, all alone, and without my big brother", the voice said again, this time he could tell whose voice it was. It was his voice.

"Where are you!?" Henya looked around scared.

"I'm right here, in front of you", the voice manifested itself in front of him. The figure was the spitting image of him, only with pale yellow eyes and a creepy aura around it.

"Who are you?" he questioned, keeping his makeshift weapon between him and the form.

"Why, I'm you, the you that you refuse to acknowledge, the you that is hidden from all but yourself." the form said with a grin.

"I'm a Shadow, the true self."

Henya stood there quiet, worried and scared, trying to slowly back away.

The Shadow's voice changed to a scared and terrified voice. "Don't hurt me, I'm scared. I'm useless without my brother."

A grin came back on its face.

"Sound familiar? It's the bullshit you tell everyone else, when in reality you're glad your brother is dead, after all, no one looking down on you, no one telling what to do, where to do it, or when. Am I right, or am I right?"

Henya looked appalled. "What? No! I loved my brother…I would never be happy he's dead. Stop lying!" he threw the piece of metal at the Shadow, missing by a mile.

The Shadow burst out laughing. "Come on, stop lying to yourself, you enjoy being free from him." it thought for a second. "And taskforce bullshit. You just want to join for power; you want people to rely on you."

Henya was furious at this point, no longer scared.

"That's an outright lie! You're not me! You know nothing of me!"

The Shadow started to laugh at the top of its lungs, stopping only to smile at Henya for a brief second.

"You're right. I'm me now."


End file.
